Six on Saturday – 22/05/2021 – the long weekend edition

Canada is part of the British Commonwealth, as such, the Queen is our official head of state. There has long been debate about this situation – many folks think we should cut those ties once and for all because the monarchy has been nothing more than a symbol for many decades. The Queen, and her Governor General (national) plus all the Lieutenant Governors (one for each province) are present for ceremonial purposes only. That being said, I doubt there is ANYONE who does not applaud having the last Monday preceding May 25 as a national holiday, ostensibly to celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria, in 1819. For Canadians, this long weekend is the unofficial start of four months we call summer, when not a flake of snow will be seen. (At least, not a flake of snow will be seen in most of the southern part of the country!) It’s been in the low 20’s all week and although we’re due for a temperature correction soon, this weekend is all about summer as best we can, given various degrees of lockdown across the country.

Every week Jon, The Propagator, invites gardeners to share six things happening in their gardens. First up for me is this lovely purple leaf sand cherry – Prunus x cistena. A cross between Prunus cerasifera (cherry plum) and Prunus pumila (sand cherry), it was hybridized in 1910 at South Dakota University and has successfully adapted to my dry clay soil. Now in full bloom:

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I bought a nice Echiveria last summer; it sent up a flower stalk from which I took cuttings over the winter. Mama plant survived winter in a sunny window and now proudly displays her babies. (Yes, we’re starting to stack firewood for next winter…)

Camassia quamash – sometimes known as camass – is a small bulb – native to western North America. It shares the same lovely shade of blue as many Muscari and appears just as Muscari are fading to a memory – great timing!

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Solomon Seal x 2 – Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’ on the left, is rather short and a slow spreader in my garden, while Polygonatum biflorum gets to about 90 cm (three feet) and spreads like crazy, even in dry shade. I love it. Bumble bees love it. Nothing more to be said.

Striped Maple, aka Moose Maple, aka Pennsylvania Maple – Acer pensylvanicum is a small understory tree often found in the forest about 500 km north of here. I love the unusual leaf shape (for a maple) and the dangly flower clusters.

It’s still spring, so we must still have spring bulbs, right? In this case, Narcissus poeticus var. recurvis, surrounded by a small pond of Sweet Woodruff – Galium odoratum. They each have a light and lovely fragrance – it was quite intoxicating prepping (and planting) a nearby dahlia bed yesterday afternoon!

I’ll be enjoying my long weekend, where else, in the garden! Hope you all have a safe and happy weekend too.